Sustainable Valorization of Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. Residue as the New Lauric Oil Source Using Alternative Green Extraction and Refining Methods

Abstract

Litsea cubeba is an ethnic woody oil plant, in which essential oil rather than oil has been the main foreign trade product through the decades. Concerning large amounts of residue generated from L. cubeba essential oil processing, a sustainable valorization pathway of these biowastes is proposed in this study. First, such biowastes have been systematically investigated for the first time regarding their oils extracted by three extraction methods, where ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) could significantly improve the extraction rate of traditional pressing and solvent extraction without any changes in oil quality. Moreover, the composition of acylglycerols and fatty acids in L. cubeba fruit, kernel, and peel oils were also first identified, which further proved that peels with abundant free fatty acids could lead to high acid value of L. cubeba fruit oils. Compared to virgin coconut oils, L. cubeba kernel oils have a more balanced fatty acid composition with a high lauric acid level, which could be applied as a promising lauric oil resource. Considering the high acid value in L. cubeba kernel oils, both decoloration using activated clay and alkali deacidification were attempted, where the combination of alkali deacidification and 10% of activated clay performed the best considering both quality and cost.

Phenotypic Diversity of Litsea cubeba in Jiangxi China and the Identification of Germplasms with Desirable Characteristics

“…Its EO consists of bioactive substances with broad-spectrum antibacterial properties, which can be used as antibacterial agents or preservatives in the chemical and food industries and as functional compounds in skincare products [6][7][8][9]. The remaining residue after removing EO can be used as feed and food, as well as for extracting kernel oil, which is a promising oil resource [10][11][12]. L. cubeba also has strong drought resistance and adaptability and is a useful pioneer tree species for ecological restoration [13].…”